Do jointed swimbaits work in Hawaii?

I have always been enamored with jointed lures. The idea of the tail kicking independently of the head of the lure just sounded so much more realistic than one solid piece. The first jointed lure I saw was a 2-piece wooden freshwater Rapala lure in the 80’s that was reputed to be a kaku killer but for some reason I never fished a jointed lure until 2 yrs ago.

After seeing a slo-mo video of the Zetz Jointed F-Lead 135S (bottom lure in the photo above) I just had to have one, even if it wasn’t available in the US. It came with stout hooks and swam as good as it did in the marketing video, but I have yet to hook anything on it because I’ve never fished it in deep enough water where fish were big enough to lunge after a 5.25″ sinking lure.

A few months ago, a friend from Florida who wrote this epic Maui whipping report, suggested I try a Vudu Mullet when I asked him if he knew of an inexpensive lure that was very effective. Turns out the Vudu Mullet has been slaying fish in Florida and the Gulf States for years, and has remained very popular as a tough, rubberized, jointed swimbait. Once again, the slo-mo marketing video had me wanting me to buy a set of the 3.5″ and 4.5″ Mullets. At least these jointed lures were sold in the US and retailed for less than $8. The Zetz Jointed F-Lead 135S, a hard bodied, bigger game lure, cost more than $17.

I fished the 4.5″ Vudu Mullet on the flats last week on a rising mid-morning tide. Started with the white body/chartreuse tail color scheme because the water was murky and I was testing the theory that white lures show up better in murky conditions. I walked the 800 ft stretch of beach we test lures from, and got followed by 12″ – 14″ kaku that seemed to want to smell the wagging tail of the Vudu Mullet and stayed near a few feet away from me even after I pulled the lure out of the water to recast. Eventually a kaku pulled the lure down but didn’t get hooked in the solo treble hook.

Here’s how the 4.5″ white/chartreuse mullet looked in the murky water that day. Enlarge the video viewer, and play it back in slo-mo if you really wanna see the amazing swimming action.

Thinking that a more realistic color might be better as I reached clearer water, I put on a 4.5″ Vudu Mullet in a “silver mullet” pattern. That got follows too but no strikes. So, for comparison, I put on the trusty Shimano Shallow Assassin (second from top) and retraced my steps. Got follows and no hits either. Hmm, was the white/chartreuse Vudu Mullet a better lure for this day or did it just get first crack at the kaku?

The knock against jointed lures in the salt has been that they don’t cast well because their center of mass isn’t stable (my Florida friend explained it to me that way), and the pieces could get ripped off or bent. Plus, they’re more complicated, and thus, cost more than 1-piece lures. Sport Fishing magazine, the best fishing magazine in the world imho, wrote an article last year on jointed hard plastic lures, basically saying that the new batch of lures made for salt water can handle the abuse of toothy fish and out perform solid lures in the right conditions.

The 4.5″ Vudu Mullet weighed 0.9 oz on my digital kitchen scale and cast pretty well because of that weight. The 3.5″ Mullet (2nd from the bottom in photo below) matches the hatch better on the flats but only weighs about 0.4 oz. I haven’t tried that yet but if I can cast it out, I bet the picky kaku will annihilate it.

If the jointed lures do well in my field tests I’ll bring ’em in to sell in the Store. Have you guys had any success with these type of lures?